


Leprechaun

by JupiterMelichios



Series: Tumblr Fics [27]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Artemis Fowl Fusion, Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Challenge Response, Fae & Fairies, Fairy Tale Elements, Ficlet, Flirting, Hostage Situations, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Kidnapping, LEPrecon, M/M, Organized Crime, artemis fowl - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24579199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JupiterMelichios/pseuds/JupiterMelichios
Summary: “Okay,” the fairy said, standing up and walking to the perspex that separated him from Tim. His voice was calm, even. Placating. “Look, why don’t you start by telling me what it is you want. If it’s magic…”“Oh it’s something much simpler than that. I want gold.”
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Series: Tumblr Fics [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/136539
Comments: 10
Kudos: 97
Collections: JayTimWeek





	Leprechaun

**Author's Note:**

> For JayTim Week day 2 - Fairy Tale or Book inspired AU
> 
> Warning: this fic features an adult Jason flirting with a teenage Tim. Nothing actually happens, but I know that might squick some people.

Tim considered the figure in the hastily constructed holding cell before him. Hastily constructed, but certainly not shoddily so. Harold knew his work. The concrete might still be damp in places, filling the cave with its distinctive musty smell, but there wasn’t a crack anywhere in it.

The only furniture in the cage was a small cot, the metal frame bolted securely to the floor.

Three of the walls were smooth unbroken concrete, but the fourth was nothing so gauche (or easily escaped) as bars. A clear sheet of perspex separated Tim from his… guest.

He hadn’t expected the fairy to look so… well, human. Of course its size, the pointed ears and the slight greenish tinge to the skin, all of them marked it as definitely other, but there was no denying that the face was extremely human-looking. It was even handsome, if your tastes ran to full-lipped mouths and wide soulful blue eyes.

Tim made a point never to leave any kind of online trail, and he’d invented an entirely new kind of encryption algorithm just to hide his porn folder, so if his did, no one but him would ever know.

“You can’t keep me here, human,” his guest said. His name, according to the helpful little name badge on the front of his uniform, was Jason Todd. Tim hadn’t yet decoded what the marks on his shoulder meant but if they worked anything like the marks of rank Tim was used to, Jason was rather more than a simple beat-cop. So much the better for Tim’s plans. The higher profile this was, the quicker Officer Todd’s superiors would pay the ransom.

“I don’t intend to keep you here, Mr Todd,” Tim said. “As soon as I have what I want, you will be free to leave. I don’t even intend to run any experiments on you and believe me, that’s very very tempting.” That was true, he was fascinated to know just how human and fairy anatomy differed, but still, he was perhaps laying on the threats a little thick. But when you were fifteen and trying to make a name for yourself in the criminal underworld, you learnt to press every advantage.

In truth, Tim really didn’t need the threats to appear creepy.

Janet Drake had been one of the most feared crimelords in America, and that’s not an easy reputation to build when you’re five foot four, slender, a woman, and everyone thinks you’re just the boss’s wife. Jack had wanted to go straight when he got married, but Janet hadn’t married into a powerful crime family just to spend her life shopping and attending galas. She’d demanded Jack hand the reins of the business over to her, and then she’d forced the entire criminal underworld to respect her through force of will, ruthless intelligence, and judiciously applied violence.

Tim would probably, one day, be taller than she had been when she disappeared, but it had been clear since he was a toddler that he’d never be tall enough to be physically intimidating, so she’d taught him everything she knew about controlling a room, forcing everyone around you to pay attention.

A combination of his age, his slight build, and his mother’s careful training had given Tim an aura that was something like a cross between Vito Corleone and a Midwitch Cuckoo. He looked like he was smart enough to figure out all your dark secrets, cruel enough to use them against you, and ruthless enough that he’d have you killed if you did let him, and two of those were even true.

Tim hadn’t, yet, ever killed anyone. Had never given the order, or pulled the trigger himself. He was aware that sooner or later he would have to, maybe even as part of his current mission, and he wasn’t relishing the idea.

“It gets easier the more you do it,” his mother had told him, when he was six and had first asked the question. “It isn’t easy, at first, but if you were the kind of person who found that sort of thing easy you wouldn’t be any use to be except as another hired thug, and I have plenty of those.”

Most of the hired thugs had faded away after she disappeared, and Tim had let them go, too caught up in his own fear and grief to think about the future. That hadn’t lasted long - his little bouts of unhelpful emotionality never did, and he was quite sure he’d rid himself of them completely before he reached adulthood - but it was long enough.

Now all that was left of his mother’s empire was a few measly millions, a father who didn’t know who he was half the time, a loyal manservant who’d been chosen because he wasn’t bright enough to question orders, and his bodyguard Prudence. Who was very very good, the best there was in certain extremely specialised fields, but even with the kind of firepower the Drakes could supply she didn’t constitute a private army.

If he was going to get back the kind of manpower the Drake name had once commanded, if he was going to have the men and resources to mount a real search for his mother, he needed funds. More funds than even the ransomware he’d been refining for a attack on the Gotham bank could supply.

“Okay,” Officer Todd said, standing up and walking to the perspex that separated him from Tim. Tim was taller than the fairy by a foot or so, but this close it was clear who would win in any kind of physical altercation. Tim was thin almost to the point of unhealthiness, and the two hours he spent each day practising martial arts wasn’t enough to counteract the fact that he often forgot to eat and rarely if ever slept more than a couple of hours a night. Officer Todd on the other hand was muscular, broad shouldered with a weight-lifters strong thighs. Fairies, especially elves like Todd, were not known for their physical strength, but it was clear Todd had put a lot of work into his. “Look, why don’t you start by telling me what it is you want.” His voice was calm, even. Placating. “If it’s magic…”

“Oh it’s something much simpler than that. I want gold.”

* * *

Jason burst out laughing. He couldn’t help it, even with two hostage negotiation training courses under his belt (and he’d aced both of them, thank you very much), he couldn’t keep from laughing at the stupid mud-boy and his ridiculous demand.

“You think I’m carrying it in my pockets? Going to take that pot of gold everyone _knows_ leprechauns carry? God how stupid are you?!”

“Personally I think I’m rather intelligent,” the mud-boy said, with a small smile. God the smugness was just radiating off him. “Certainly I’m intelligent enough not to believe old wives tales. But you know, myths don’t just come from nowhere.” The boy’s smile widened. “I intend to ransom you, Officer. And I think that Leprechaun will be more than willing to part with their gold, when it’s that, or risk me showing the world what you really are.”

Jason’s breath caught. Of course the LEP had a hostage fund, and it had even been needed a couple of times, but never for a human. The mud-people weren’t even supposed to know fairies _existed_ , but this kid… He’d known about the ritual, and the mesmer, and the shielding. And worst of all, he’d used Leprechaun in the right context, which meant he didn’t just know the myths, he knew about their present. He knew about their laws. And he knew about the hostage fund.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists.” They did of course. Every law enforcement agency had too sometimes, but spitting defiance was better than letting this child - Jason didn’t know much about mud-people but he knew a kid when he saw one - know he was intimidated.

“I’m hardly a terrorist, Officer. I haven’t threatened to kill you, or even chop any pieces off you. Not even the really interesting pieces. I just want money, and all I’m threatening you with is a little unwanted fame.”

“A little… You lunatic, don’t you realise what you’re doing?! If the humans find out about us, it’ll mean war! People will _die_ . A lot of people, on _both_ sides.”

The little snake raised a single eyebrow, the movement just visible above his mirrored sunglasses. Without quite knowing why, some ancient hind-brain instinct that warned when faced with predators maybe, Jason shivered. “That doesn’t sound like my problem, Officer. But I did anticipate the possibility.”

“And?”

“And I now own quite considerable shares in a number of arms manufacturers.”

“You slimy, duplicitous, heartless little prick! You…”

“I’d _like_ it if you didn’t use language like that,” the mud-boy said, and Jason felt his mouth snap shut. 

That had been deliberate, he was certain of it. On top of everything else he knew, this little slimeball knew about the laws of hospitality, and it seemed like he planned to exploit them.

How did he know so much, anyway? The ritual, the laws, LEPrecon, Jason’s name… Wait, Jason’s name. The others he could have found a source for, maybe one of the surface exiles who was desperate enough to talk, but Jason’s name… “How do you know who I am?!”

The boy smiled one of his disgustingly smug little smiles. “It _is_ helpfully embroidered on your uniform, officer.”

It was too, but… “It’s in…”

“Gnomish, yes. Fortunately, I’m fluent. So are my associates.”

Gods above and below but that was so much worse than Jason had expected. If he could read... 

He needed to calm down. He’d trained for this. Admittedly his trainers had assumed that someone else would be the hostage and that he’d have a body full of magic and a lot of heavily armed retrieval guys on his side, but still. He knew this.

What had his instructor said? The first step is building a rapport. Jason couldn’t think of many creatures he related to less than this smug little bastard, but he had to at least try.

“Since you know my name, don’t I get to know yours?”

Another eyebrow raise. “Timothy Jackson Drake. Pleased to meet you, I’m sure.”

“Timothy. That’s a nice name. Sort of… exotic.”

“I suppose it might be, to you.” There’d been something there, barely a flicker, but Jason was descended from Cupid himself. He knew what that kind of interest felt like.

Mentally he revised up his opinion of the mud-boy’s age. Still young, you could tell from the proportions and the height, but not a child. A teenager.

Cupid help him, but he could work with that.

He shifted his stance, licking his lips and rolling his shoulders just a little, so that the fabric of his jumpsuit pulled tight against the muscles of his arms. He didn’t know anything about what humans considered attractive, but that always worked on sprites, and there was something sprite-like in the boy’s sharp features and slim frame. “You must be very clever, to have caught me.”

“I was very clever to have _found_ you,” the boy corrected him. “Actually catching you was disappointingly easy.”

Jason considered his options, and decided to go with the riskier one. He had a hunch, and descendants of cupid tended to have good hunches about that sort of thing. He leant against the glass, hip cocked and arms crossed, and said in the most seductive voice he could manage without completely tipping his hand, “I promise to fight harder next time.”

Bingo. The boy’s tongue flicked out, wetting his lower lip, and every instinct Jason had told him that behind the silver-black of his mirrored shades, the boy’s pupils had just dilated.

“There won’t be a next time,” Timothy said, and his voice wasn’t quite as cold or as steady as it had been before. “Once I have what I want, you’re free to go.”

“And what was that exactly?”

“I told you. Gold.”

“Oh yes.” Jason smiled, keeping his gaze on the teenager’s sunglasses, maintaining eye contact, as he said, “Are you sure that’s _all_ you want from me?”

A moment of tension, a moment when Jason was sure that he had him, that the little snake was going to slip, and then the boy straightened up, all the emotion except smug satisfaction sliding off him like water off a kelpie’s skin. “I would never be so discourteous as to ask anything of the kind from a guest,” he said, with a smile like a crocodile. “Especially one as important as you. Though you’re welcome to try your little trick on my associates, if the idea really excited you so much.” His smile made it clear that they’d be exactly as swayed by it as he had been. “Do enjoy your stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love
> 
> You get bonus points if you knew why the Butler and Juliet characters were called Harold and Prudence. I went on kind of a deep dive there.


End file.
